Business of Media

Determining Company Status: Public v. Private

Determining the status of a company is the most important part of conducting company research. Public and private companies differ considerably in the availability of information about their operations, therefore you should have a basic understanding of their differences.

a. Publicly Traded Companies

Publicly traded companies sell stock to the general public on a stock exchange. Anyone who purchases stock in a company owns part of that company. As a result, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) requires public companies to disclose financial and other information to their owners, so that investors can determine for themselves if their company's securities are a good investment (see Required Disclosure Filings on this page. 

b. Private/Closely Held Companies

Privately or closely held businesses, are those for which there is no public ownership of its shares or assets. Although closely held businesses tend to be small, family owned or jointly owned by a small group of people, they can also be large or wholly owned subsidiaries of major publicly traded companies. It should be kept in mind that the majority of businesses in the United States are private. Because privately held companies do not sell shares to the public, they are not required by law to report financial information to the SEC. As a result, it is more difficult to locate detailed information about a private company's operations.

c. Subsidiaries

A subsidiary is a distinctly separate firm controlled by a parent company. A subsidiary is referred to as "wholly owned" when 100% of its stock is owned by its parent company. Large publicly held multi-national companies often own dozens of smaller privately owned subsidiaries for which financial information is filed under the name of the parent company. As a result, having knowledge of whether a private firm is a subsidiary of a public corporation is extremely important when looking for company information.

For example:
Travelscape, Inc., a travel agent and reservation services company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Expedia Group, Inc., which is a public company traded on the NASDAQ.

Credit: used with gratitude and permission from Georgetown University Law Library's Company Research guide

For general information on public companies, try these databases: 

EDGAR : Search for company filings including 10-Ks, as well as quarterly reports. This publicly-available resource is provided by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Filings are from 1994 to present.

Additional databases for researching companies can be found on the NYU Business Library's company/industry page.

Articles are also a great source of information and insight about a company and may be the only source of information on a private company.  Search these databases for articles on companies:

It can be challenging to find in-depth information on privately held companies as they are not required to be transparent in their operations as public companies must do.  Here are a few suggestions of databases to search for infomation on private companies: 

Additional databases for researching companies can be found on the NYU Business Library's company/industry page.

Articles are also a great source of information and insight about a company and may be the only source of information on a private company.  Search these databases for articles on companies:

The Business FAQ is a great resource for answers to some of the most asked business-related questions.  Search by keyword or browse the full list of questions. 

Need to ask a business-related question?  Contact a business specialist.